Cauliflower Pizza

Where do I find most of my great ideas? Pinterest. Ill admit, Im not always that creative and I frequently find myself in a food rut. When that happens, up powers the computer, and I see all the great ideas the rest of you have out there.

I am on a mission to feed my family healthier food, and that includes food with substitutions for bread and meat. We are huge ‘meatatarians’ around here, and a dinner without meat is still in our future. But, I did finally manage a meal with a vegetable substitution…Cauliflower crust pizza. OMG, was it yummy! A little warning however:

Use the broiler: I let my toppings melt in the residual heat of the oven because I had other things going on and didn’t want to risk burning the pizza. But the crust was a little more soggy/spongy.

When using fresh veggies that might exude excess moisture – cook them first, and use a rimmed baking sheet. I topped my with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes. The juice from the tomatoes ran everywhere!

Get creative! Next Im using this recipe as a ‘bread’ side, next time I have a meatloaf or other meat dish.

directions:

To “Rice” the Cauliflower:
Take 1 large head of fresh cauliflower, remove stems and leaves, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to food processor and pulse until it looks like grain. Do not over-do pulse or you will puree it. (If you don’t have a food processor, you can grate the whole head with a cheese grater). Place the riced cauliflower into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 8 minutes (some microwaves are more powerful than others, so you may need to reduce this cooking time). There is no need to add water, as the natural moisture in the cauliflower is enough to cook itself.

One large head should produce approximately 3 cups of riced cauliflower. The remainder can be used to make additional pizza crusts immediately, or can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week.

To Make the Pizza Crust:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray. (I used a silpat, but I would wager a non-stick aluminum foil would work just as well, cutting any extra grease/clean-up) In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup cauliflower, egg and mozzarella. Add oregano, crushed garlic and garlic salt, stir. Transfer to the cookie sheet, and using your hands, pat out into a 9″ round. Optional: Brush olive oil over top of mixture to help with browning.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

Remove from oven. To the crust, add sauce, toppings and cheese. Place under a broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted (approximately 3-4 minutes).

Enjoy!

*Note that toppings need to be precooked since you are only broiling for a few minutes.